Provisional application management with automated acceptance tests and decision criteria

Abstract

A method and system for testing newly installed or recently upgraded software is presented. All software installation activities are tracked and logged. New and upgrade software is isolated, either physically or logically, and tested using diagnostic software. If the new / upgrade isolated software passes the testing by the diagnostic software, then it is allowed to operate in the presence of other previously installed software. If an error occurs during an execution of the new / upgrade software, either while isolated or in the presence of previously loaded software, a log of other concurrently running software is reviewed to determine a likely software incompatibility with the new / upgrade software.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Technical Field [0002] The present invention relates in general to the field of computers, and in particular to computer software. Still more particularly, the present invention is a productivity-enhancing tool that improves application integration, integrity, and troubleshooting through an automated installation control and diagnostic process. [0003] 2. Description of the Related Art [0004] The average computer users today, whether business or casual, have dozens and perhaps even hundreds of disparate applications installed and running on their computers at any given time. Additionally, new applications are continuously added to computing environments, while existing applications are often patched to correct known problems or upgraded to add functionality. Often application upgrades and patches come in related groupings such that multiple changes are introduced into a computing environment simultaneously. [0005] For example, if a user installs ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Additionally, software companies often bundle patches and fixes into large groupings, frequently containing hundreds of files, to be installed simultaneously as a “fix pack” or “release level.” Additionally, many operating systems allow for automated and unattended installation of such patches and upgrades, such that the end user may not even be aware that an installation activity has occurred.

With the complexity of modern computers, applications, and operating systems, errors are often unintentionally introduced into the computing environment when new applications, patches, or upgrades are applied.

Presently, whether software is installed automatically or manually, no satisfactory method exists to preemptively ensure the continued integrity of the computing environment as a whole after new software has been installed.

This method can be very inefficient and time consuming, and often fails to pinpoint the cause of failure, thus resulting in the need to reinstall the operating system or application.

Additionally, automated and bundled installations can exacerbate the problem due to the many changes introduced at once, and the fact that a specific set of running applications which may induce a problem potentially would not be running simultaneously for many days, weeks, or months after the software changes are affected.

This makes it very unlikely, even if the end user was aware that a software change had occurred, that the upgrade / installation would come to mind as a potential cause of an error encountered much later.

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